Wednesday, December 3, 2014

The CBC Is Useless

Today I want to write about the big news that's going around. Yes, it's controversial
and yes it may generate some criticism, but it needs to be addressed.
I am, of course, talking about Don Cherry leaving CBC for Rogers...
You didn't think I was going to write about Ferguson, did you? I'm not commenting on Ferguson because a) I'm not
there; b) my knowledge of the history of black-white relations in the
US is too limited to come to a definite viewpoint; and c) I'm pretty sure
those protesting and rioting are more interested in looting than
advancing the cause of liberty. Otherwise they'd be peaceful or at
the very least throwing hardcovers of Man, Economy and State or
Tragedy & Hope at the police.

No, the reason I
would rather focus on CBC is because the fundamental economic lessons
in Ferguson are present at the CBC. How so? How exactly can one make
that connection? Simple: the Ferguson police are funded through
taxation, as is the CBC. Of course, one is American and the other is
Canadian but thanks to the not-yet-announced North American Union, we're
practically the same country.

It may be beating a
dead horse, but this needs to be drilled in over and over again:
governments and bureaucracies cannot behave like the private sector.
In the latter, one must produce a good or service worthy of consumer
purchase in order to be rewarded with profits. Failure to meet the
demands of your customers results in bankruptcy. This process is
known as economic calculation and this is how “society” figures
out the best and most efficient ways to use the planet's scarce
resources. We all vote with our dollar – now only if our dollar was
an actual commodity rather than debt-paper printed by the central
bank.

Now this process of
economic calculation is nonexistence with government bureaus, or
Crown Corporations like the CBC. But unlike the media in say, North
Korea or Cuba, the CBC operates in an environment alongside private
enterprise. Therefore they can look to the pricing scheme of say, CTV
or Global News, and make estimations based off that. Or, as in the
most recent cases, the CBC has been forced to rely more on
advertising revenue – but truth be told – they still rely heavily
on taxpayer money. They are still technically a Crown Corporation.

But with Rogers
acquiring the rights to Hockey, and Don Cherry jumping ship, not to
mention the Jian Ghomeshi sex-scandal, one must question the
necessity of the CBC – if there ever was one. It was created when
Canadian media was still underdeveloped, as a way of giving Canadians
a voice and a sense of national culture when our airwaves were
dominated by the American media. But now we're 14 years into the 21st
century, Canada has its very own media conglomerates that dominate
the airwaves. Albeit, through regulatory capture of the CRTC and the
crony-capitalism of our current system... But now with the internet,
anybody anywhere can make
their own youtube channel or website or blog or whatever. Never
before in its 78-year history has the CBC been as irrelevant as it is
now. It's time to stop funding the state broadcaster... Well, it's
time to stop funding the State itself, but that's another topic for
another day...